Noe Carias, an evangelical pastor who lives in North Hollywood, was released from the Adelanto Detention Facility on Thursday. He was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about two months ago. ( Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Inside the walls of the Adelanto Detention Facility, Pastor Noé Carias found himself preaching to dozens of detainees who could be deported back to their home countries.

Carias, 42, of North Hollywood, who leads an evangelical congregation near Echo Park, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement two months ago during a routine appointment with immigration authorities. He said he was released Thursday night wearing an ankle bracelet to monitor his whereabouts and is scheduled to resume routine check-ins with ICE on Thursday.

“I gave (the detainees) Biblical advice, (telling them) don’t dismay, raising their spirits that they continue onward because they came to me crying. ‘Pastor, they’re going to deport me, I’m not going to be able to see my family again. I’m not going to see my children,'” Carias said Monday during an interview in North Hollywood. “I started to pray for them that God helps them, protects them, that God aids them and that they feel strengthened.”

Carias, a pastor of seven years, said he preached the Gospel and led services each night for prisoners in a space the facility made available for them, even as his own immigration case was still up in the air.

ICE released Carias from detention on electronic monitoring pending the outcome of his removal case, which is currently undergoing review by the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals, according to the immigration enforcement agency.

“U.S. Department of Homeland Security databases indicate Mr. Carias has assumed multiple identities and nationalities over the years while seeking to evade
immigration enforcement and has previously been removed to both Mexico and Guatemala,” the agency said via email on Monday.

Carias acknowledged that he used false names decades ago when he was detained by ICE, but said he never used false nationalities. He was born in Guatemala but his family later moved to Mexico.

Carias’ attorney, Noemi Ramirez, said she filed a motion to reopen an in-absentia deportation order from 1995, but it was denied last month. She has filed an appeal with the Board of Immigration Appeals that is pending, she said.

Separately, Ramirez has filed a family petition through his U.S. citizen wife with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in an effort to obtain a green card for the pastor.

Ramirez said they have also filed a waiver with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for three deportation orders issued against Carias, two in 1993 and one in 1995.

Carias said he felt “blessed” that he has reunited with his U.S. citizen wife Victoria and their two U.S. citizen children, Nylah, 7, and Abraham, 5. He said he would continue praying for those who remain detained at the facility.

“Many of them told me, ‘Pastor, may God forgive me; they are going to deport me to my country but I’m not going to stay there because they can kill me,'” he said. “(They say) I hear on TV that it’s terrible in my country, in El Salvador, in Guatemala, in Honduras.”

Rabbi Jonathan Klein, executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice or CLUE — which has advocated for Carias’ release — called the release a victory and a testament to the power of organizing by immigrant rights groups and their supporters.

“We also know that not everyone is so fortunate to have a high-profile position as Pastor Noe — this was good for him and we’re very happy for him, and we know that it’s possible for more people to be let out of detention and ultimately we need everyone out of detention,” Klein said.

Klein said he believes detention facilities like Adelanto may be unsafe with unhealthy conditions. Those detained there are yanked out of their neighborhoods and stable environments with few resources, he said, “and with great challenges to protecting them from a system that is absolutely broken.”

Meanwhile, Carias said he is maintaining faith in God that his immigration case will be resolved. He said he’s faced hardship before.

When he was nearly 8 years old, Carias said he was abducted by a guerrilla group in Guatemala and held captive for nearly 5 years in the mountains before he managed to escape. He was tortured for refusing to pick up a rifle and fight with them, he said. He showed visitors his leg where he said he was shot during his captivity and where he said he was burned.

Now, he’s hopeful that his “good behavior” while living in the U.S. and lack of a criminal record will ultimately allow him to stay.

“I think that the United States of America, especially this administration, should have a more compassionate heart knowing that God doesn’t love the separation of families,” he said. “God loves the unity of families. This country was founded on Biblical principles that are based on the word of God.”

Noe Carias, an evangelical pastor who lives in North Hollywood, was released from the Adelanto Detention Facility on Thursday. He was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about two months ago. ( Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Noe Carias, an evangelical pastor who lives in North Hollywood, was released from the Adelanto Detention Facility on Thursday. He was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about two months ago. ( Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Sound

Noe Carias, an evangelical pastor who lives in North Hollywood, was released from the Adelanto Detention Facility on Thursday. He was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about two months ago. ( Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Noe Carias, an evangelical pastor who lives in North Hollywood, was released from the Adelanto Detention Facility on Thursday. He was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about two months ago. Here, Carias shows where he was shot as a child after being abducted by rebels in Guatemala. ( Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Noe Carias, an evangelical pastor who lives in North Hollywood, was released from the Adelanto Detention Facility on Thursday. He was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about two months ago. ( Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Brenda Gazzar is a multilingual multimedia reporter who has worked for a variety of news outlets in California and in the Middle East since 2000. She has covered a range of issues, including breaking news, immigration, law and order, race, religion and gender issues, politics, human interest stories and education. Besides the Los Angeles Daily News and its sister papers, her work has been published by Reuters, the Denver Post, Ms. Magazine, the Jerusalem Post, USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, The Cairo Times and others. Brenda speaks Spanish, Hebrew and intermediate Arabic and is the recipient of national, state and regional awards, including a National Headliners Award and one from the Associated Press News Executives' Council. She holds a dual master's degree in Communications/Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.

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